BINGHAMTON, N.Y. - The Binghamton Senators, in conjunction with the American Hockey League, announced today their schedule format for the 2011-12 AHL regular season.

The defending Calder Cup champions will face their East Division opponents for 34 of the 76 games in the 2011-12 season.

Binghamton will take on four teams each in the league’s Atlantic and Northeast divisions, including four games against the newest member of the Eastern Conference, St. John’s.

The B-Sens will only see action versus three opponents from the Western Conference this season, all from the North Division. The B-Sens battle the Rochester Americans a total of eight games, and will face the Hamilton Bulldogs and Toronto Marlies each for a pair of games.

The breakdown of Binghamton’s 2011-12 season opponents is as follows with the amount of home/road games listed and NHL affiliates listed in parenthesis:

East Division

Hershey Bears (Washington Capitals): 4/4

Norfolk Admirals (Tampa Bay Lightning): 4/4

Syracuse Crunch (Anaheim Ducks): 4/4

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (Pittsburgh Penguins): 5/5

Atlantic Division

Manchester Monarchs (Los Angeles Kings): 1/1

Portland Pirates (Phoenix Coyotes): 1/1

St. John’s (Winnipeg Jets): 2/2

Worcester Sharks (San Jose Sharks): 1/1

Northeast Division

Adirondack Phantoms (Philadelphia Flyers): 4/4

Albany Devils (New Jersey Devils): 4/4

Bridgeport Sound Tigers (New York Islanders): 1/1

Connecticut Whale (New York Rangers): 1/1

North Division

Hamilton Bulldogs (Montréal Canadiens): 1/1

Rochester Americans (Buffalo Sabres): 4/4

Toronto Marlies (Toronto Maple Leafs): 1/1

Also today, the Binghamton Senators announced today five guaranteed prime home playing dates assigned by the AHL for the upcoming season.

Three of the five guaranteed dates are reserved for the traditional and much anticipated B-Sens’ holiday games; Thursday, Nov. 24 for Thanksgiving, Monday, Dec. 26 for a post-Christmas match and Saturday, Dec. 31 for New Year’s Eve.

The complete list of Binghamton’s five guaranteed home dates are as follows: